The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1887-05-26
It may be a little fight. 1t goes to
court. The lawyer is very ready to

1t may be a little HgHI. IL Sooo "
court. The lawyer is very ready to
take the case. "Oh! it's a small mat
ter. I'll appear for you for ten dol
lars" Your case comes on, and your
counsel appears for you, gets up and
talks about five minutes, ALREADY got
you safe for the ten dollars, and the
whole thing is summed up, and you
find by the bill of cost that you are
minus ffty-ive dollars, and it was
nothing but a little fight, and not more
than a half fight at that; nobody hurt,
but the law must be satisfied, and the
honorable court, with all its dignity,
will sit there and explain how the
dignity Of your great commonwealth
must be respected, and all this respect
can be paid n~dollars and cents, $50
they seem to think).
Well, they got you where the wool
is not very long, and you have this
tune of dollars and cents to dance to,
and you 60 to your lawyer and say, II
can't raise the ten dollars you charged
for appearing for me, but [ tell you
what I'll do. I'll come and haul for
you. The lawyer says CAL right, l
have hauling" Next morning you
are there with a rig that cost you
three hundred dollars, and yourself to
do the loading, unloading and driving,
and work hard all day, and at night
you, will get about $2.25 credit against
the ten dollar fee. Ii.
Now where is the justice in such
dealings? The professional man can
collect his fee Of ten dollars according
to law, and he only rendered you SER
vice for five minutes. You served
him all day, with several hundred dol
lars invested, and yet you could not
collect more than $3.50. But the
lawyer has the benefit of class legisla-
ton. I have known them to charge
more for one-half days work than
they would pay a laborer for twelve
months work, and that without any
previous contract, charged it and col
lected it, and that in civil cases, where
there was nothing to do but a little
Office work.
Now, brother farmers, why in the
name of high heaven can't we settle
all our difficulties, without all this un-
necessary expense. Every farmers
club in the land can be a power of
arbitration within itself. All disputed
landmarks, all misunderstanding, of
whatsoever nature, with few excep-
tions, can be rightly and justly dealt
with and disposed of without testi-
mony and worrying the lawyers and
the honorable court about it, not to
say anything about the trouble we
give the smaller fry, such as Superior
court clerk, big high sheriff, and
many others who are hanging around
to pick up a dime, without laboring
for it. ooh! but" says the lawyer,
at costs so much to prepare ourselves
to obtain the know-how-part." Now
that's all bosh. Take two young men,
place them before you, each with
$1,000 cash. One is going to farm
and the other is going to prepare him
self for the legal profession, or the
medical profession. The professional
man will be ready for business and
the farmer boy won't have enough to
start him he has his farm to buy, his
tools to buy, and his farm to stock, SO
the cost of the know-how-part is not
SO great an item after all. It is the
inducements held out by class legisla-
ton that produces SO many "called
and sent" professional men.
If this finds space in your valuable
paper, [ will next time say something
about the professional politician" I
want one or more from every farmers
club in the State to write something
on the matter set forth in this COM
munication. Such subjects, interest
the farmers as we'll as lectures on rails
ing corr and potatoes.
Yours, PINE KNOT.
VIII Y . ANYDnYrn-~